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Add to SafariWhen comparing QWERTY vs Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, the Slant community recommends QWERTY for most people. In the question“What are the best keyboard layouts for programming?” QWERTY is ranked 5th while Dvorak Simplified Keyboard is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose QWERTY is:
You don't have to carry your own keyboard everywhere, QWERTY is pretty popular.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Popular
You don't have to carry your own keyboard everywhere, QWERTY is pretty popular.
Pro Default keyboard shortcuts
The keyboard shortcuts for most applications were designed with QWERTY in mind.
Pro Good for Vim users
Vim is most natural in QWERTY, since this is the layout it was designed on. Learning a good editor will help with your programming a lot more than learning a new layout.
Pro Easy access to important keys
Some of the most used keys in programming such as ; . / " | ' < > * are very easily accessible because they either have their own keys or are "shift options". People who grew up using alternative layouts, such as Belgian AZERTY, know from experience this shouldn't be taken for granted.
Pro More ergonomic
Designed with comfort in mind.
Pro Standard on all operating systems
You can find this layout on all operating systems.
Pro Opportunity to learn proper touch typing
Most people passively learn and use QWERTY-based layouts before switching to Dvorak. The switch gives them an opportunity to completely relearn 10-finger typing, which is where a significant portion of the speedup comes from. Coupled with more ergonomic key placement, this makes for a more enjoyable typing experience.
Pro Useful keys in home row
70% of more useful keys are placed in the home row.
Pro You can reuse qwerty layout
Since letters and symbols only change place, but not key, you can change the keys on your keyboard and get a full comfortable Dvorak layout, without having to buy a new keyboard.
Pro Vowels all on one hand making it easy to teach to kids
Cons
Con Not an easy to gain speed on QWERTY
Learning to touch type using traditional touch typing methods, you would not be as fast as others on Dvorak and you would be making quite a few mistakes.
The reasons that most of record holders have placing in typing speeds is because they do not use traditional typing methods.
Con Made for typewriters, not computers
It was created before computers got popular. This layout was created for typing machines, so as to prevent collision between character hammers from slowing down the typist.
Con Very unintuitive
Why QWERTY?
Con Correct typographic letters and symbols not easily reachable
Con Inconvenient for common key-shortcuts
Key bindings common to most applications, such as Ctrl+Z/C/V, can't be done on the left hand while mousing with the right. Shortcuts for other applications are out of the QWERTY positions they were designed for and aren't so convenient to access.
Con The U is directly under your finger while the I is far away
I is used more--by about 2.5 times. In fact, U is the least used vowel after Y. The consonants TNSHRDLC all appear more often. So why is U directly under your finger? And why should you have to stretch for I?
Con F is too hard to reach
F is not an especially common letter, but it's used much more than the rare letters JQZ. Why is it on one of the most difficult spots on the keyboard? It's also used in OF, one of the more common bigrams, ranked at #13. Maybe some other languages use Z more than English, but why is F harder to reach than Q?
Con L is too hard to reach
L is not a rare letter. It's used even more than U is in English. Why put it in a difficult spot for use with the weak pinky finger?
Con Not the standard keyboard layout
It will be difficult to frequently switch between computers.
Con The "ls" command is uncomfortable to type
This is a very common command programmers have to type often when working with the shell. It's pretty awkward in Dvorak, especially when you add common options. Try typing "ls ‐latr", and see how that feels.
Con Difficult for occasional moments when you have only one hand free
Hand-alternation is good for touch-typing with both hands, but problematic (a lot of horizontal movement) when typing with one. Can be avoided by temporarily switching to another layout.
Con Not easy on the right pinky finger
Most useful symbols for programming are on the right pinky finger, which is not very comfortable.
Con Doesn't account for finger length
The keyboard layout doesn't account for E being easier to press than C for example on a QWERTY layout, this can be seen for example using the workman key cap scores done here.
Con Not actually faster than QWERTY
Maybe it's more ergonomic, but that's debatable. You'll certainly get more benefit from an ergonomic keyboard than a change in layout. Dvorak's reputation for speed is due to a typo in the initial press report, and a biased (and since discredited) study run by Dvorak himself. Dvorak is all hype and no substance.
